Paul Pierce is a bonafide Boston Celtics legend, having been a crucial part of the team’s last NBA championship. The Celtics have won just 1 championship since 1986, and that was in 2008. As such, for a franchise that is tied for the most successful in NBA history, the team and stars that led the Celtics to that title are held in very high regard by the fans.
The team is understood to be the original Big 3 before the Heatles were formed in Miami, with the Celtics acquiring Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in 2007. The Celtics had been struggling for a while despite Pierce being an All-Star consistently, and the additions of Garnett and Allen made a massive difference to the team. They won 42 more games in 2007-08 than they had the previous year and went all the way to win the championship.
The Big 3 of Garnett, Pierce, and Allen would get back to the NBA Finals again in 2010 but lost in 7 games to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in an epic series. And while a bigger three would go on to upstage them, the team with Garnett, Pierce, and Allen is mostly remembered fondly by fans.
Paul Pierce Didn’t Include Rajon Rondo Or Ray Allen As A Part Of The Celtics’ Big 3
A player that often goes unsung when people talk about those teams is Rajon Rondo. Rondo was a young point guard at the time, but his influence was huge in helping them win the NBA title. And Allen was a star in his own right, undisputedly thought to be in the Big 3. Except Paul Pierce didn’t think so, snubbing both Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo and mentioning Sam Cassell as a Big Three member in 2015 in a conversation with ESPN.
“We were all good friends on the court, but Ray always did his own thing. That’s just the way Ray was. Even when we were playing together, we’d be having a team dinner and Ray wouldn’t show up. We’d go to his charity events but Ray wouldn’t show up to somebody else’s.
“I remember when Rondo re-signed with Boston, we had a little dinner at a restaurant and Ray didn’t show up,” Pierce continued. “I know Ray probably didn’t like Rondo that much, but it wasn’t a fact of not liking somebody. You don’t have to like everybody you play with — it’s a matter of showing support. Rondo probably didn’t like Ray either, but he came to Ray’s functions to show, ‘Hey, we’re together in this.’
“Even the year we won it, after a game we’d say, ‘Let’s go have something to eat and have a night with the older guys.’ We’d get there and it would be me, Kevin, and Sam [Cassell], but no Ray. In a lot of ways, me, Sam and Kevin were our Big Three.”
Paul Pierce’s reasons aren’t completely bizarre, but it’s still an odd statement to make. Of course, Allen would eventually leave Boston for their new rival, Miami, something that exacerbated the bad blood between him and his former teammates. Whatever anyone may say, though, the Boston Big 3 of that era will always be Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.
